While the advanced intelligent network concept continues to evolve, it has now matured to the point where AIN networks are widely used. AIN networks provide network operators with considerable flexibility and economy in structuring their product offerings and providing their customers with numerous telephone conveniences and services. The typical AIN architecture allows the switched transport network to interact with database systems and other so-called intelligent peripherals for obtaining information, data and support operations. This occurs when the switching network is triggered to access the database or peripheral by some condition that arises when a telephone call is being processed. An AIN trigger will typically arise in an AIN-equipped switch, and that will cause the switch to refer to a database for information or service to support processing of the call. AIN databases are typically accessed via a common channel signaling system--a separate network used for out-of-band signaling. This architectural scheme is the basis for a diversity of network services.
AIN techniques are employed by both interexchange and local exchange carriers. For some applications, the attendant common channel signaling systems of multiple carriers have been interconnected so that signaling information can be exchanged for coordinating operations in support of certain telephone services involving both carriers. For example, an interexchange carrier's common channel signaling system and that of a local exchange carrier may be interconnected through a signal transfer point so that signals can be exchanged relative to special service telephone calls involving both carriers, examples of which are such things as "800" calls and calling card calls where number verification is needed.
Concomitant with the advances in AIN technology, significant advances have also been made in the customer premise equipment (CPE)--that apparatus which makes up the terminus equipment between which telecommunications calls are extended through the carrier networks. While CPE may be no more than a simple telephone, it also may be quite complex and include such things as private branch exchanges (PBXs), computers interconnected by local area networks (LANs), and other intricate arrangements of terminal equipment and peripheral devices (e.g., facsimile machines, video terminals, databases, and so forth). The make-up of CPE is diverse, and it continues to become more so. The composition of CPE used in a typical residential setting, for example, is changing rapidly as computers are increasingly used in the home, and as such things as video, information, and interactive services "on demand" begin to become commercial realities. The components of residential CPE, as is perhaps more typical in a business setting, may also be interconnected in a local area network. The CPE, both residential and commercial, has lately taken on the attributes of a network unto itself.
Although the combined advances in intelligent networking and customer premise equipment have together resulted in a very effective telecommunications system, the advances on the two sides have been made somewhat independently and not always with a view as to how the operations of each might be coordinated and integrated with the other for even more effective communications.
On the CPE side, the various internal operations and control of calling features may be carried out in various ways, but that is usually done internal to the CPE, or only after a call has been put to the network where AIN processing is available. Within the CPE the scope of operations is virtually always limited by the resources available. For example, certain CPE may be able to perform conference calling operations, or do voice recognition, or provide recorded vocal announcements to its users, but once the limited resources for these are exhausted by use, the function has to be denied until the required resource is freed up. There may be no alternative resources to turn to.
On the network side, as a rule, the AIN operations are carried out entirely within the boundaries of the network. A telephone call, for example, receives AIN treatment only after it enters the network (the "network" takes diverse forms, of course). Typically, the CPE, whatever its make-up, simply directs a call to the network, and only there does it receive whatever AIN treatment it may provoke within the network. Thus, there has been a need for better coordination between the CPE and network operations so that, for any particular service, operations in support of the telecommunications exchanged are carried out in a more seamless and integrated fashion. Because of the growing complexity of the CPE itself and because of the networking that is now being increasingly used internal to the CPE, there has also been a need for switching and AIN-like processing capabilities within the CPE.
More specifically, techniques are being sought that will allow the CPE to look both to the network and to its own resources for intelligence in controlling and routing telecommunications calls while they are being processed within the CPE, that will allow the CPE to derive intelligence from within the network and from within the CPE itself for routing and control of communications exchanged within its own confines, and that will allow the CPE to access and use resources that are available within the network in support of call processing conducted within the CPE. It has been desired that these same techniques operate conversely so that the network is facilitated in some cases to turn to the CPE for intelligence and resources for its use in processing telecommunications.
It is among the objects of the present invention, therefore, to provide methods and apparatus which will meet these needs; which can be used to coordinate and integrate operations carried out in support of telecommunications exchanged between CPE and a switched telecommunications network; and which can also be used for coordination and control of communications that remain within the CPE itself.